As a vehicle for understanding key factors underlying the recurrent shortages of registered nurses, this study will examine the response of hospitals and nurses to the recent growth of supplemental nursing agencies. An analysis of supplemental nursing agencies, as they emerged during the recent nurse shortage, can shed light on why there have been recurring shortages of hospital nurses; how hospitals as the primary employers of nurses have been able to maintain substantial control over the options for and conditions of nurse employment; and the types of actions that should be pursued at both the policy and institutional legels to avert another shortage. Due to the paucity of research and information on this topic, the proposed study is exploratory in nature. Its purpose is to generate a series of hypotheses and to draw out their broader theoretical implications and policy significance. Although this is an exploratory study, in order to make the research as systematic as possible, the key research questions are formulated as preliminary hypotheses and subhypotheses. The research will draw on both existing sources of information and primary data gathered through field research. Survey data will be gathered through structured interviews and survey questionnaires. The primary subjects of the analysis are hospitals and nurses. Additional respondent categories include agency directors, collective bargaining agents and professional associations. A stratified random sample of hospitals in alameda and Contra Costa counties will be selected to serve as the basis for selection of specific hospital and nurse respondents. Qualitative and quantitative information gathered from existing sources and the field research will be integrated so as to address the key research questions. Interview and survey questions will be designed to permit analysis of the key research questions. To facilitate data analysis and interpretation, individual responses to each question will be aggregated and systematically arrayed. Where appropriate, standard statistical techniques will be applied to analyze quantitative data.